From The Next Web · Ana Maria Constantin · · 2m
DHS leak exposes 41,000 staff records online
Hackers calling themselves the Department of Peace published personal details of US immigration and border officials, saying the government has their data too.
In brief
Hackers calling themselves the Department of Peace published personal details of US immigration and border officials, saying the government has their data too. Records of over 41,000 DHS employees and contractors including names, emails and phone numbers were published online by hackers claiming to target the agency's…
Over 41,000 DHS staff exposed
Records of more than 41,000 employees and contractors at the US Department of Homeland Security are now online. They include names, email addresses, phone numbers, job titles and office locations.
Who was targeted
The staff work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and other DHS agencies. CBP staff account for more than half of the exposed records.
The leak was published Wednesday
WIRED reported the leak on Wednesday in a story by Dhruv Mehrotra, Maddy Varner and Dell Cameron. The transparency nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets published the archive, which it calls Icepick, the same day.
Hackers claim Okta was the source
Distributed Denial of Secrets says the data came from a hacktivist group calling itself the Department of Peace, taken from the Okta single sign-on system DHS uses. Okta denies any compromise.
“Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised.”
Hackers justify the release
In a note with the files, the hackers wrote: They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs.
“They have our information, so it's only fair that we have theirs.”
Security experts warn of risk
Alexander Leslie, a national security expert at Recorded Future, told WIRED the data could help adversaries. If authentic and current, it is an extraordinarily valuable intelligence resource for those seeking to penetrate DHS.
“If authentic and current, this is an extraordinarily valuable intelligence resource for those seeking to penetrate DHS.”
Search tool taken down
On Thursday, a search site built by researcher maia arson crimew stopped loading after its registrar put the domain on hold.
Bluesky blocks the archive
Bluesky is blocking links to the Distributed Denial of Secrets archive and labelling them malicious. The company told WIRED the archive contains people's contact information shared without their authorisation.
What matters most
Records of over 41,000 DHS employees and contractors including names, emails and phone numbers were published online by hackers claiming to target the agency's Okta system.
